1615. Schouten. Human skeletons ten or eleven feet long. 1669. Narborough. Mr. Wood was taller than any of them. 1750. Falkner. A cacique seven feet and some inches high. 1765. Byron. A chief about seven feet high, and few of the others shorter. 1766. Wallis. Measured some of the tallest: one was six feet seven inches, several six feet five inches; the average height was between five feet ten inches and six feet. 1783. Viedma. Generally six feet high. 1829. D'Orbigny. Never found any exceeding five feet eleven inches; average height, five feet four inches. 1833. Fitzroy and Darwin. Tallest of any people: average height, six feet, some taller and a few shorter. 1867-8. Cunningham. Rarely less than five feet eleven inches in height, and often exceeding six feet by a few inches. One measured six feet ten inches. [133] "At Home with the Patagonians," pp. 165-6. [134] "Through Patagonia," p. 6. [135] Otto Nordenskjöld, _Geog. Journ._, October, 1897. [136] "Never river seemed fairer to look upon, extending away on either hand until it melted and was lost in the blue horizon, its low shores clothed in all the glory of groves and fruit orchards, and vineyards and fields of ripening maize" (Hudson, "Idle Days in Patagonia," p. 17). [137] This little railway escaped notice in the chapter on railways. It is an English company, the Central Railway of Chubut, which was registered in 1886. Besides the original 42 miles an extension of 10 miles to Gaiman will soon be open. In 1907-8 the net profits on working were £6,629. [138] O. Nordenskjöld, _Geog. Journ._, October, 1897. [139] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," chap. viii. CHAPTER XX ACROSS THE CONTINENT TO MENDOZA UNDER THE ANDES